Related News and Opinion

January 14, 2019

December 18, 2018

January 18, 2019

A Decatur lawyer sentenced to nearly nine months for forgery and counterfeiting convictions and disciplined five separate times last year has again been indefinitely suspended from the practice of law in Indiana for noncooperation.

The Indiana Supreme Court indefinitely suspended Jill N. Holtzclaw on Thursday, effective immediately. Holtzclaw’s most recent indefinite suspension comes after she was suspended in September for her failure to cooperate with an Indiana Supreme Court Disciplinary Commission investigation of two grievances filed against her.

In addition to her five disciplinary actions in 2018, Holtzclaw was charged in February 2018 with forging a judge’s signature on a phony divorce order and sending a bogus email to the widow of a client claiming the forwarded emails were from a Huntington County deputy prosecutor. She pleaded guilty to forgery and counterfeiting charges in December, then was sentenced to 270 days behind bars followed by a year of probation in January.

If Holtzclaw wishes to be readmitted to the practice of law, she must “cure the causes of all suspensions in effect and successfully petition (the Supreme) Court for reinstatement pursuant to Indiana Admission and Discipline Rule 23(18)(b).” All justices concurred.